By CHRIS EASTERLING
The Independent
There
was no doubting the importance of Friday night’s game against
The Tigers, though, were more than up for the challenge.
With
J.T. Turner giving the fans plenty to cheer about in the first half, Massillon
jumped in front by 24 at intermission and cruised to 34-0 victory over the
Golden Rams in front of about 8,000 fans at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.
“Our
kids work hard and they bring it to the table,” said Tigers coach Jason Hall,
whose 3-2 team plays host to St. Ignatius next Friday. “They know what’s at
stake. We have to play better football, and we did. I think what you saw was some kids playing with some passion. As coaches, we even
challenged them on the field tonight when they were messing up. When they did,
we challenged them to keep fighting and getting better.”
While
Turner certainly provided the fireworks offensively – rushing for 127 yards and
a pair of scores in the first half on his way to a career-high 192-yard night –
it was the Tiger defense which stole the show against the 3-2 Golden Rams.
Coming off a two-week stretch in which they surrendered 546 rushing yards to
Normandy and Ursuline, the Tigers were more than
equal to the task of slowing down Garfield and its explosive tailback, Tyson
Gulley.
Gulley,
who had over 660 yards rushing in the Golden Rams’ four games, could never find
holes to run through as
“Our
game plan was to shut down the run,” Tiger linebacker J.B. Price said. “That’s
what they’re really good at. (Gulley) was a really good back. We watched film
every day. Just making adjustments at halftime helped us a lot. We just played
hard. We had to prove ourselves from last week.”
As
impressive as the performance was, it was made all the more impressive by the
fact three Tiger starters – defensive end Matt Rose, outside linebacker Jamison
Heath-Gates and cornerback Kyle Allman – were in street clothes due to
injuries. All three, along with receiver Kyle Pizzino,
are expected to play against St. Ignatius.
Quarterback
Michael Clark also missed a series in the second quarter when he re-aggravated
a finger injury. He returned in the second half.
On
this night, it didn’t matter who was on the field for the Tiger defense, as
The
defense also did its part to help change the score. With the Tigers up 10 after
one quarter, Turner stepped in front of a pass tipped it in the air to himself and returned it 46 yards for a touchdown two plays
into the second quarter for a 17-0 lead.
It
was the Tigers’ first defensive score of the season.
“They
said they were 92 percent run,” Turner said. “So when they passed it, I just
knew I had to go break on the ball and make a play.”
Meanwhile,
the Tiger offense heeded the lessons from last week’s loss to Ursuline, as
It
took him all of three carries to top that total on Friday night. By the end of
the first quarter, he already had 96 yards and a 29-yard touchdown on just nine
carries.
He
would add an 11-yard scoring run with 13 seconds left in the first half to make
it 24-0 Tigers.
“I
couldn’t even sleep this week knowing I had a bad game last week,” Turner said.
“I knew I had to just go out there today and put on a show.”
At Paul Brown Tiger Stadium
SCORING SUMMARY
M – Geier 26
FG
M – Turner 29 run (Geier
kick)
M – Turner 41 interception return (Geier kick)
M – Turner 11 run (Geier
kick)
M – Grunder 7 pass from
M – Geier 35 FG
Gar Mas
First downs 9 15
Rushes-yards 45-128 37-239
Comp-att-int. 2-5-1 3-13-0
Passing yards 4 45
Fumbles-lost 4-2 0-0
Penalty yards 0 25
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing:
Turner 22-192 2 TDs;
Reiman
2-17;
Partridge 1-8;
Patterson 2-7;
Arelt 2-7.
Ty. Gulley 23-69;To.
Gulley 8-43;
Barnett 3-30;
Wells 4-10.
Passing:
Partridge 1-5-10.
Martin 2-5-4 INT.
Receiving:
McCarthy 1-28;
Gaines 1-10;
Grunder 1-7 TD.
Barnett 2-4.
Records: